Shayla nodded at Ikis’s orders and adjusted the satchel on her shoulder so it sat comfortably along her side with the strap across her chest and pushed slightly back so it was out of her way. Even though they would only be scouting at this point and shouldn’t run into any issues she would rather be prepared for any unforseen happenings. Things didn't always go as planned, that she had experienced on multiple occasions. The powerful telekinetic had the advantage that if she did get into a fight she could use her abilities to keep her pack flat against her and out of the way, or hover it in the air away from the fight without it taxing her. The small woman smiled up at her slightly taller apprentice.

“This is where your abilities will be most useful” she said to Vellik. In forest like this she couldn’t sense things much beyond the pair, and definitely not outside her field of vision. They would be relying on Vellik’s superior mind powers to sense out other beings well ahead of them. It would also be a real test of Shayla’s use of the swirling currents she sensed in the Force to detect others.

“Come, let's get moving.” She gave another nod to Ikis and her and Vellik started off to the north as assigned. She was already beginning to feel the heat and humidity but put that discomfort aside. She wasn't giving up her armourweave robes for lighter weight gear.

"Seems pretty straightforward, we go out and have a quick look-see. Probably should try to find a high vantage point and get a better idea of the lay of the land. There wasn't much opportunity for that on our landing approach. "

Alecs considered the Sentinel's words. His plan made sense as Alecs had expected. "Alright then I am ready to go do you have anything else you need?" He said to the Sentinel as he turned to look for a suitable route in the southern sector.

"I'm ready." ::The sentinel answered simply. Outside, it was muggy and the occasional sounds of wildlife could be heard in the distance. He let the younger Jedi Alecs take lead, wanting to get the measure of him and his abilities. The area they set down in seemed a bit isolated, there was no sign of any native sarkans or other intelligent beings or civilization. Indeed it might have been peaceful walking through forest if not for the knowledge that they were hunting a renegade and may end up being hunted by Sith themselves before it was done.::

~Ikis made sure everybody had their gear and their pairs and was off the ship before he closed it up. He didn't want any strange creatures or any sentients sneaking on board unnoticed. TR was still on board and would keep an eye out with sensor sweeps for when they all came back, especially if they seemed in a rush. He checked the small display on his bracer and then headed out in a westward direction at a decent trot.~

~The foliage wasn't too dense, which made it not so terrible to navigate. He'd only gone about half a kilometer however before he started to run into boggy areas and had to change his path some. It eventually turned into a full on swamp-like marsh in amidst the trees and so he was forced to proceed in an alternative fashion. Ikis began to bound between the small landmasses that still existed around the bases of some of the trees. Though not the fastest way to travel, it got him through the area. The marsh went on for a bit and then finally ended.~

~Unfortunately as he got back onto solid ground some sort of amphibious reptilian creature came out of the marsh behind him and decided he looked good enough to try and eat. Ikis quickly reacted and used the Force to snatch up a fairly good sized downed branch and swat the creature with it a few times, also shoving the more solid part of the branch in its jaws when it opened them. All this trouble seemed to give the creature pause at the frustration his prey was giving him and so Ikis took his opportunity to rapidly move away from the edge of the water. Checking over his shoulder occasionally he didn't see or sense the creature giving chase. He moved onward, but then of course ran into some sort of jungle cat that also seemed to want a piece of him. Apparently he was destined to be considered on the menu. Using the Force with another tree branch he swatted and smacked the creature and then shoved the thick part of the branch in its mouth when it opened it. As with the last beast this seemed to be enough to deter it from thinking that Ikis was a good catch and it ran off. With the animal dispatched he headed on his way once more to scout the area.~

Alecs quickly found an opening for he and the Sentinel to exit the landing site and enter the jungle proper to begin their scouting. He immediately activated his Force Sight feeling the familiar sense of lightness as his eyes were covered in a blue sheen and improved in sharpness. He felt the presence of the organisms around him, as Alecs had expected his partner's presence was the largest due to his Force sensitivity but he also noticed several smaller organisms, smaller lizards and insects mostly at first. As the two pushed past the foliage Alecs saw a pair of small, white and green birds that he recognised as Convors fly through the branches above them calling to each other. He smiled a little and continued to survey the area for other organisms.

Alecs soon found himself approaching some boggy areas so he extended his senses above him to check the under story for larger creatures. Once he had affirmed this he gestured to his partner that he thought they should continue their survey from the treeline unless they wanted to wrangle the swamp's inhabitants.

Willax could sense the large volume of life around him, particularly the plant life even before he left the ship. On descending the landing ramp the overwhelming smell of decaying vegetation, the cacophony animal and insect calls and the oppressive humidity reinforced the Nalronis first impressions of Sarka.

Drahcir and Willax turned East to commence their reconnoitre, ahead of them was a band of dense multi layered forest around the edge of the clearing. Spreading out into a line abreast formation to cover the broadest swathe of country the two young Jedi proceeded. The initial forest vegetation turned out to be quite thin and beyond it the tall trees gave way to a lower more open plant community and the land began to rise slightly. The surface of the ground also changed with the deep leaf litter giving way to exposed karst limestone. The limestone was honeycombed with dolines and sinkholes each full of stagnant sludge. The edges of the rock around the holes was weathered and scalloped to sharp ridges that were in places as sharp as knives and difficult to traverse.

Willax looked over in Drachirs direction, the Human was some fifty meters away, but occasionally visible through the low twisted shrubs and sedges that clung to a bare existence around the edges of the sinkholes. Drahcir was already forging ahead so Willax sprung across a mid-sized hole that appeared to be full of sludgy quicksand. As the Nalroni jumped over it he could sense the hole continued many hundreds of meters into the ground blending with its neighbours into a complex system of mud filled caves.

Skirting around the next hole which was even larger Willax sensed a threat and a quick glance revealed a pair of eyes sticking out just above the sludge of the of the sinkhole. Keeping his distance the Nalroni reached out with the force and detected at least two large animals in the pool within the sinkhole. It seemed that drowning would be the least of his concerns if he happened to fall into one of the holes. Hurrying on and trying to avoid the sharpest of the rocks the Nalroni had to remind himself that he was supposed to be scouting and did his best to take in the landscape around him as well as the threats closer to hand.

Again the Nalroni had to use force jump to cross a pool, leaping to the top of one of the occasional small trees that littered the landscape. As he briefly clung to the upper branches, some six or seven meters above the ground, Willax caught sight of a low ridge of dark red rock that projected above the treeline about a Kilometre to the East. He also glimpsed Drachir who was still slightly ahead, the human, with his survival skills appeared to be coping more than adequately with the harsh terrain.

The young Padawan followed his master as they headed out to scout the area north of the landing zone. Sarka wasn't as temperate as Tython, but the heat and humidity didn't bother him too much. Partly because he didn't have the armorweave robes that Shayla wore and he usually opted for the less conventional sleeveless tunic look.

As the pair penetrated the tree line to the north and entered the jungle, the smell of decaying vegetation filled the air. Where Tython was lush and green and everything seemed to be growing, the climate on Sarka seemed to hasten the life cycle of the local flora. Despite the drawbacks, the planet had a wild natural beauty all it's own and Vellik was enjoying the experience. He glanced at his master and wondered if she shared his opinion or if the planet's environment was more distasteful to her.

Vellik reached out ahead of them with his sensory powers to get a lay of the land. He could sense the presence of a multitude of tiny life forms, many clustered in small groups, but also several much larger and more isolated creatures. He suspected predators of some sort lying in wait for unsuspecting prey. As long as they steered clear of those they shouldn't run into any problems.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" He commented to his master walking next to him. "The jungles here are much different than those on Tython, but just as wild and full of life." The young man was looking around at the moss covered trees and the tiny insects eating away at decaying plant life, trying to take in the whole experience. "And speaking of life, I sensed several large animals spread out a ways ahead. We should be able to skirt around them easily enough without getting their attention. They seemed to be content where they were."

He expected there were probably some swamps and bogs up ahead as well, but as his power enabled him to sense life, he hoped Shayla's sense of the currents in the Force would be up to the task of detecting the non-living perils of the jungle.

Logged

I felt a great disturbance in the force as if millions of nerds cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Integrity can accommodate the inadvertent error and the honest difference of opinion; it cannot accommodate deceit or subordination of principle.

The jungle canopy towered above their heads and Shayla briefly wondered how much of a breeze there was up there, since down at ground level the heat and humidity were stifling and the air still. Her less heavily robed padawan seemed not to be having any issues with it but for Shayla her armourweave made her quite warm and she was glad she wasn’t armoured like some of the others. There was a beauty to the jungle however and that made up for the humid heat. There was some undergrowth but as in other tropical rainforests most of the vegetation towered above them. Vines and epiphytes could be seen on the trunks and branches way above, everything vying for the sunlight that down here on the ground was patchy as best. The result was a perpetual gloom that smelt of fresh and decaying vegetation but it didn’t detract from the experience of being here.

When Vellik spoke up she smiled, her eyes still scanning through the trees and her senses reaching out through the Force. She couldn’t detect the lifeforms he spoke of in the same way he could, only those immediately around her and they were a myriad of what she assumed were insects and other tiny creatures, but the Force swirled around all the living things here. The currents were strong, not like they were on Tython by any means but the abundance of pristine natural life leant its strength to the Force.

“Yes it is very beautiful though I will admit the climate makes it somewhat less pleasant than on Tython. The currents in the Force are strong here too. There is so much life, it actually makes it a little difficult to try and ‘see’ with the currents. Then again I am still learning how to do that. Lead the way around these creatures. Can you do that as we pick up the pace a little to cover more ground?”

Vellik nodded and they began a slow jog, her pupil veering off to avoid some animal or another. As a result their travel was peaceful and unhindered by the wildlife, with the exception of a few flies who bugged them before being blown away by a tiny wave of the Force by Shayla. She kept casting her senses out and before long she felt the patterns ahead change, as if the trees came to a stop and there was a drop.

“Careful Vellik, I think there is a cliff about five hundred metres ahead” she warned him. She saw his head nod and they continued along for a bit before slowing back to a walk. The tree trunks ahead seemed to thin out then suddenly stopped. The cliff dropped on a sharp angle, enough that no vegetation grew on it with the exception of the odd plant that had managed to take root in a crack and they would have to use the Force to traverse it rather than risk trying to climb up and down. For Shayla that was nothing and she could easily assist her padawan down. The canopy of the forest below was at about the level of their feet, and glancing up at the trees above them she guessed that meant the cliff dropped down thirty or forty metres.

The sight was amazing however. A sea of green stretched out in front of them, an occasional tree standing above the rest. A flock of what appeared to flying feathered reptiles were flying past them above the canopy less than a kilometre away, their strange calls ringing out. They had seen that the jungle was immense from the scans and looking out of the cockpit transparisteel but to stand on the ground and witness it in person was breathtaking. Their cliff stretched out left and right, disappearing around and down on their left while to the right it snaked forwards before turning back again, rising in altitude as it did so. It appeared to be a sharp fault line that probably ran for tens of kilometres. Pulling out her datapad she noted their position relative to the landing site then scanned the horizon. It seemed to be an endless canopy in any direction she looked, but with the moisture and heat waves coming off the canopy it was hard to make anything out.

Shayla fished in her satchel and found a pair of electrobinoculars, using those to scan the canopy ahead. Using those the canopy appeared less dense than she initially thought. To the west she could see a continual break in the canopy that snaked off and she guessed meant there was a river there. Briefly she wondered if there would be a waterfall further along the ridge that direction. To the north and east there were pockets where the canopy was less dense and where there appeared to be holes. Clearings, or more swampy areas she supposed. Way off in the distance to the northeast she saw a glint of something and zoomed in on the binoculars. Through the haze over the canopy she couldn’t make much out, all she could tell was that the sun was hitting something reflective about ten kilometres away. She knew from their maps that there was no surface city out there, but there was no guarantee that meant it was what they were looking for either. It could have simply been a communications tower which they had noted were occasionally dotted around, or something as simple as a reflective rock. She had the binoculars set to record as she looked around, then turning them off she looked around again with bare eyes then up at the tree canopy. That would give her a much better vantage point…

“Wait here a moment” she said to Vellik, though it was a somewhat unnecessary statement since he couldn’t follow her anyway. Concentrating hard she crouched down then putting the Force behind her jumped directly vertically, catching herself at the height of the jump with her levitation and forcing herself to keep rising. It was difficult, she hadn’t attempted to go that high before and it took a lot of concentration to keep herself going upwards. Just below the canopy treeline she stopped finding it too difficult to go much higher. If she thought the view from below was breathtaking, then from up here it was magnificent and the sight of it almost made her lose her concentration, the woman falling a couple of metres before she caught herself again. Her previous musing had been correct, about five kilometres to the west she could just see a waterfall crashing into a river below before it snaked off into the trees. Through the electrobinoculars that became even clearer, a mist permanently hanging over the falling water. She quickly scanned around with them on record, struggling and having to concentrate extremely hard to do the task while remaining airborne. The moisture formed into small low clouds over some of the canopy obscuring her vision and while she could more clearly tell where some of the clearings might be she still couldn’t make out what that glint was as the haze was thickening between her and it. With that task done as quickly as possible she took one final glance around with her eyes then allowed herself to drop back down, her powers slowing her fall to safe levels.

Vellik was staring at her somewhat wide eyed as Shayla landed, breathing more deeply from her exertions. She took a few deep breaths in then looked at him with a wide grin on her face. She knew they were there scouting on a serious mission and not sight seeing but she couldn’t deny him the view.

“That was amazing! Did you want to see?”

Still wide eyed he nodded, and grinning some more she instructed him to crouch and jump as she did, the two shooting up into the air before Shayla caught them both and lifted them up. That was even more difficult than before and it required every bit of her concentration to lift them to middle canopy height, barely enough to see the waterfall she pointed out to him. They only remained up there for twenty seconds before she brought them back down, the little consular now breathing heavily with sweat dripping down her face from more than just the heat and humidity.

“Give me… a moment… then we will… jump down that cliff” she huffed to her padawan, her eyes still shining with excitement from the feat and the view.

Once the Sentinel had given him the all clear Alecs and Khe'vhiin quickly climbed into the treetops. Alecs saw several types of avian species, clearly not expecting this, fly away in confusion and chuckled quietly as the two continued their trek south. As the two travelled further through the trees they both felt the rush of fresher air as a slight breeze blew through the treetops. "Not unpleasant" Alecs thought as he leapt from branch to branch. The two continued to survey the area around and below them, taking mental notes on anything they saw. Alecs was glad they decided to ascend to the treeline when he felt the presence of two large reptilian organisms wading through the muck below them. This feeling quickly disappeared when he felt the presence of a pack of carnivorous felines running through the treeline towards them.

Looking back at Khe'vhiin, Alecs could tell that he had sensed them coming as well. Reaching out to the boggy water below them Alecs used Alter Environment to blast the pack, causing some to fall. While he did this Khe'vhiin dealt with more by collapsing the weakened branch beneath them by blasting the base free with his rifle. This caused the remaining creatures to scatter, looking for a meal elsewhere while the two continued to survey their path.

After jogging for a while the duo came upon the cliffside that Shayla had warned him was coming up. Vellik exhaled as they came to a stop at the edge. He was starting to feel a bit fatigued by the heat and humidity now, but so far it was nothing he couldn't handle. What he saw beyond the edge of the cliff took his breath away. The canopy seemed to stretch endlessly in front of them and the jungle was so thick it almost seemed to him that he could just walk across. Steam was rising from the canopy as the heat caused moisture to evaporate. In the distance he hard the calls of animals he could not identify, and flocks of winged creatures emerged from the jungle and flew away from the two awestruck Jedi.

Vellik was still taking in the sight when Shayla told him to "wait here a moment." The padawan was surprised to see his master suddenly jump into the air and keep going higher, and higher, and higher. Finally she slowed to a stop and seemed to be surveying the scene from her new vantage point. A time or two she seemed to lose concentration and drop a short distance but always regained control. As she came back down, Vellik's amazement showed on his face as he let out an impressed whistle. He had seen her do many impressive things with levitation but nothing quite like that. A smile spread across his face when she asked if he wanted to see it too and he nodded eagerly. Following his master's instructions, the young man crouched down and leapt straight up into the air. With the aid of the force he was able to leap several meters on his own, but Shayla caught him and propelled the both of them higher. They stopped around half way up the cliffs canopy height and she pointed out the waterfall to him. It was a beautiful site with the mist rising up from the rocks as the water washed over them. As Shayla lowered them back down to the ground he hoped they would have a chance to get a closer look.

When they were back on solid ground Vellik looked at Shayla with an awestruck look on his face and said "That was incredible!" He nodded to his master when she said she needed a moment to recover. That was perfectly fine with him as he was in no hurry to leave just yet anyway. Plus his master was clearly fatigued by the experience, but the look in her eyes showed that it was more than worth it. After a few moments rest the pair prepared to scale the cliff. The padawan looked over the edge and it seemed to go down at a steep angle. Vellik didn't hesitate to follow his master as she went off the edge. He had a fare amount of cliff jumping training back on Tython and, while nowhere near as proficient as his master, he was improving. As they descended he could feel her helping to control his fall and was grateful for her assistance, as he was used to much shorter jumps.

When they were meters from the ground he sensed activity from below. Vellik sensed what seemed to be multiple large and aggressive creatures waiting for them, but he couldn't see them with his eyes. He decided they must be hiding in the foleage waiting for the oncoming prey to land. The padawan sent his master a mental impression that something was waiting for them below. As soon as they hit the ground three large, reptilian creatures emerged from the vegetation and surrounded the Jedi against the wall of the cliff. About 1.5 meters tall and 3 meters long, they were a shade of green that indicated they may be able to camoflage themselves to match their surroundings. The animals were clearly hungry judging by the multitude of sharp teeth and claws they were brandishing at their new prey. Vellik mentally kicked himself for being distracted by the view and not sensing the creatures sooner.

Wanting to make up for his lapse in concentration, Vellik took a couple of steps towards the beasts, extended his hand and reached out to them through the force. Their minds were primitive and savage, yet calculating as they moved to encircle the young Jedi. He rested his left hand on his lightsaber just in case as he probed deeper into the creature's minds. Vellik called on his Force Fear ability as he touched the fear generating center of the animal's brains and bolstered it with the mental image of a larger more fearsome animal. The reptiles halted their advanced and cautiously slinked backed and disappeared into the jungle. The padawan exhaled and looked back at Shayla.

"I'm sorry master, I was distracted. I should have sensed them sooner. They are moving off now so we should be okay for a while."

Before they got moving again Vellik extended his senses around to make sure nothing else sneaking up on them. He was determined not to let that happen again.

Logged

I felt a great disturbance in the force as if millions of nerds cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Integrity can accommodate the inadvertent error and the honest difference of opinion; it cannot accommodate deceit or subordination of principle.

Once he had become accustomed to the landscape it did not take Willax long to cross the sinkholes. Before long the ground continued to rise and the sinkholes gave way to swathes of grasses and sedges 3-4m tall and finally tumbled boulders and scree at the base of the ridge.

The rocks that formed the ridge were very different to the limestone closer to the landing zone. These were red in colour, hard, heavily twisted and metamorphosed slabs that had been formed deep in the planets crust. The rocks had then been thrust through the surface of the planet, to form the ridge, in one of the ancient tectonic convulsions that gave Sarka its unique geology and gemstones.

Drahcir already stood at the foot of the near cliff that rose the best part of 100m above the two young Jedi. He gave a sort of smile that Willax thought uncharacteristic of the usually guarded human and said simply “Race you to the top”.

Willax immediately sprung up the rocks, for a moment the scouting task all but forgotten by the two young Jedi. As he went the Nalroni startled a group of small animals, Theropsids of some sort with long hind legs and a tail, they bounded effortlessly across the rocks seeking refuge in the multitude of small caves and crevices. Willax barely spared them a thought as he jumped first onto the limb of a dead tree perched on the cliff face and finally over the eyebrow that formed the edge of the ridge line.

Here he could see in all directions. To the East ran a second ridge running North South yet slightly lower than the one on which he stood. Beyond that was a patchy landscape of karsts and sinkholes bordered to the North and South by dense forest and a river. To the west beyond the landing zone there was more forest interspersed occasionally by what seemed to be swamp. What he could not see was Drahcir.

Willax walked a short way and looked back down the cliff, there was the Human perched on a ledge looking at something white held in his right hand. Drahcir looked up and in a few short bounds was on the ridge line. “What do you make of that” he said to the Nalroni as he passed him the object.

The object turned out to be a bone, a thigh bone at Willaxs guess from a similar creature similar to those he had seen while climbing the cliff. Willax remembered there were several genuses of proto-mammal on Sarka many of which had powerful toxin glands as a defence against predators. It was not this that drew his attention however in was the fact that the bone had clearly been cut through and the heavy glazing of the edge of the cut suggested this had been done with a lightsabre or similar.

“A sabre cut?” He said handing the bone fragment back to Drahcir “are you able to gain anything further from your psycometry?”

“That was just what I was thinking” replied Drahcir.

The Human sat down in a meditation posture and almost immediately his aura began to glow, gold and green light danced around his body and his eyes briefly became iridescent blue orbs. Then the light abruptly stopped and Drahcir got up with a wary look in his eye.

“It was a Sith that killed this creature, or at least someone with a red blade I saw that much and felt the cold it was in a dark place a cave or something. But I do not think it was nearby.”

“How long ago?” Willax asked

“It’s difficult to know, weeks, months probably certainly not more than a year.”

Willax looked around and then up at the sky. “I think you are right about the cave not being nearby, look at these” he said moving more pieces of bone with his foot. “These are not marked by sabres I think those avians there” he said pointing at a partially feathered leathery creature flapping by “are scavengers and the drop bones onto this outcrop to break them apart, look there are more here and over there as well. The bones may have come from anywhere in their range.”

“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, this is an Imperial planet we know there are likely to be Sith here as well as our target” Drahcir said “I think we should take the bone back to Master Epecegu but keep comms silence for now.”

Willax agreed with the Sentinel, “yes, lets head along the other ridge to that peak” he said gesturing to the North East “we will have a good vantage point from there and then we should be able to return to the landing zone”.Drahcir nodded in agreement and the pair set off again in line abreast.

As they were approaching the ground Shayla received a vague mental impression from her Padawan that something was ahead. She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but she prepared herself for an encounter as they landed. Sure enough large reptilian creatures about her height came immediately out of the undergrowth. It was a little bit unsettling, facing down a hungry beast whose eyes were at your own eye level, but she calmly started calling the force towards her, preparing to throw a blast outwards towards them. If they didn’t scare them off then she would resort to her lightsaber.

She didn’t need to however. She watched as her pupil stepped forwards, using his Fear ability to scare off the animals without needing to injure them. It made her smile a little, so often his ability was just shunned as a Dark side power, yet it had been used to prevent the injury or death of innocent animals which were just following their natural instincts. Vellik turned back and apologised and she shook her head.

“No it is alright, no need to apologise. I would not have even felt them until I landed, and you just saw them off without the need to fight them. You did well. Let’s keep moving on, and go around those hungry little creatures.”

With a nod he reached out his senses then lead them on a tangent away from the cliff, skirting around the reptiles before returning their path back in line with their original. For a time the going continued to be easy occasionally changing direction to avoid some animal or another. So far they weren’t finding anything out of the ordinary, and as they continued on it was much the same. The area of forest they had chosen to land in seemed to be largely devoid of signs of sentient life.

Shayla slowed the pair down to a walk to give them a break in the oppressive humidity, and pulled a small canteen out of a pouch to have a small sip before putting it back. With the continual jungle and their easy going pace she knew it would be easy to get complacent and run into trouble. Ahead was a dense growth of vines and the two cast their senses beyond it. Vellik indicated that there was something there and the two carefully pushed their way through with a bit of difficulty. On the other side they found themselves standing on the edge of a small rock ledge with a short drop of a couple of metres with boggy marsh underneath. A small stream could be seen running in from off to the west. There were patches of drier land with trees and small amounts of undergrowth, and in between the patches was for the most part shallow, foul smelling water. Almost directly below them the pair could see the top of a head and the two eyes of some large muddy brown coloured amphibian.

“Well, this is somewhat less pleasant. Guess we get our boots muddy here.” Shayla looked around to see if there would be an easier route than trudging through swamp. The trees here were mostly thick branched and sturdy looking, and off to their right was a thick enough branch within Force aided jumping distance. The short woman pointed to it. “That might be a better option.”

~Ikis had gone another kilometer and was getting to the point where he should turn around when he stopped dead in his tracks. Remaining motionless he listened closely for something he thought he'd heard. Now he definitely heard the sound of voices, reptilian ones, likely Sarkans. He quickly and quietly hid in some brush, trying to determine the direction of the voices and whether they were moving towards or away from him. They didn't seem to be moving closer so he stepped out of the brush and found a tree to climb up. After going up a few meters he found a perch and got out his electrobinoculars and scanned the area ahead that it seemed the voices were coming from. Ikis couldn't see them directly, but after he switched to thermal vision and adjusted the filter for the hot environment, he could just make out three silhouettes moving.~

~He watched the figures for a time and they seemed to be continuing northward, but their estimated direction would take them nowhere near his scouting group that had gone north. Ikis took some time to scan over the rest of the area, occasionally checking back in the direction of the group that had gone by. Eventually they were out of range to track with the hot environment and all the trees in between him and the trio. After a little more checking he didn't find anything else of consequence. He was about to come down out of the tree when he heard something coming towards his direction quickly. Upon looking down he spotted two creatures that went scurrying past the tree quite fast. It appeared to be a predator and prey in chase, so he stayed put until they had gone well past.~

~Ikis hopped down the branches and out of the tree, landing quietly on the ground. Not wanting to go too much further out, he scouted in a small radius around the area that marked the two kilometer point from the ship. Finally, satisfied that there wouldn't be any surprises from this direction he began his journey back to the ship at a light jog.~

Kaor’s mind wandered as the lone Sith assassin explored far to the East of the Imperial outpost. It had been a few long days since her rather predictable encounter with the young Sith. A wry smile broke out under her helm as she recalled the Sith’s temper…

...Her taunting and the man’s pent up boredom must have hit just the right spot for him to come scything in with his crimson blade with a raw growl of anger. Flipping over the widely arcing swipe, Kaor vanished into the dense jungle foliage surrounding the cut swath of the pathway…

Returning back to the present as she sensed another drove of diminutive felines on the prowl, the agile master assassin deftly climbed to the upper canopy of the dense jungle marsh she was currently traversing. Sitting silently and mindfully melding with the surrounding foliage, Kaor watched the small pack scent around the base of the tree she had ascended. Their murky brown pelts rippled, hackles rising and falling to the myriad of smells that met their keen noses. Finding a comfortable position, Kaor glanced about her - aromatic pods hung heavily under wide glossy leaves. From her earlier study of the local flora and fauna, she recalled this particular fruit bearing tree was vastly indigenous to the towering jungles of Sarka. The pods were filled with savory flesh covered seeds that were both hydrating and nutritious to most humanoids. The Imperial botanist who’d catalogued and written about these trees had likened them to Ficus found on many planets and enjoyed by many gardening cultures throughout the galaxy. Sarkans had discouraged the sale of pollinated samples, purely out of spite, according to the Imperial botanist…. The nomad flocks of avians that called the jungles and cliff sides home pollinated the fruit bearing trees, as they roosted in the male genus and ate from the female genus’s ever bearing boughs… So, if you were in the jungle, it was a safe bet you could survive on these pods alone if absolutely necessary… Kaor did not anticipate such dire need, but it was helpful information to have when surviving off the natural landscape this far from her ship and it’s ration stores. As the felines caught scent of prey, their low intonations fading in the distance, Kaor allowed her mind to drift once more as she ate the meaty pods for her evening meal…

...The hot tempered Sith, hankering for action, had heedlessly crashed into the tangled undergrowth after her silent form. Priming a throwing dart with the amphibious neurotoxin with one hand, she swung up onto a sturdy, shadowed branch from which she could watch the oncoming Sith. His crimson blade sparked against hanging vines and branches as he crashed through them, yelling for her to face him like a man. Neither man nor mere Sith warrior, Kaor cast the near invisible dart into his saber bearing arm. While the hit wasn’t enough to startle him into dropping his blade, he did grunt and pause long enough to pull out the dart. A wicked smile spread across the assassin’s face, now the toxins could freely move along the veins pulsing past the dart’s wound. As he bellowed once more for his foe to face him, Kaor lit her deeply rumbling indigo blade and dropped down into the ankle deep swamp water.

Still a relatively comfortable distance away from the Sith and to his right, she watched as his mind began registering the bufotenin coursing through his veins. The sizeable amphibian’s neurotoxin had registered in her makeshift lab as similar to known organic toxins, namely bufotenin, an hallucinogenic and often paralytic toxin. The strength of the symptoms greatly depended on the concentration of the toxin and the dosage, as this strain was slightly foreign, being as she’d literally carved it from a local species, the assassin was eager to see it’s effects.

The oddly jumpsuited Sith caught sight of her, indigo lit mask and saber a stark contrast to the dim jungle surrounding them. Taking a step in her direction he paused in evident confusion and cast his gaze on the arm in which the toxin had been thrust - he was having issues controlling the movement of the arm, some of his bicep and tricep muscles spasming then going limp. His breathing was erratic in rage and exertion; he rubbed his eyes like he couldn't understand what he was seeing… So it was hallucinogenic as well… Deactivating her saber and dimming the nodes on her mask, Kaor backed into shadows and further observed. The Sith was plagued by his fears taken form through the neurotoxin, his cries took on a fevered pitch as he lamely attempted to cut down his imagined foes with his saber; weak, ineffectual Force Waves brushed and puffed through the surrounding vines and saplings in his confusion…. Climbing up to a higher, safer vantage among the boughs of the surrounding trees, Kaor eyed a wary pack of felines who’d heard the raucous commotion. Engaging her stealth generator, she watched them encircle the frenzied Sith, the stronger of the pack flanking him. The man’s rash movements slowed and he visibly shook himself, his eyes seemed to begin to focus on his true surroundings again… The dosage she’d given was low and had only seemed to overpower him for a minute or so… but it was too late, he didn’t have full dexterity in his sword arm yet and he brought his blaster to bear at the felines futilely. The alpha leaped for the back of his neck, claws and teeth sank in. With her helm’s sensitive aural pick ups, she could hear the crushing of vertebrae and the man fell limp under the closing pack…

A thrum of familiar ship’s engines broke her from her reminiscing. Casting her gaze in the direction of the sound, she caught a glimpse of a common enough freighter slowing for descent far to the South, Southwest of her position. Kast’s third base? Surely they wouldn’t be so overt in their course, maybe just a landing pad for a base nearby? As it was the only indication of sentient life she’d seen in several day’s exploration of the area, Kaor considered it worthy of investigation. Until she had a more complete idea of Kast’s operations in the area, the assassin would not risk herself or the mission to hasten the upstart’s death. With a more tangible objective to occupy her attention, the stealthy assassin advanced toward the freighter.

Her point of reference while heading South was a steaming waterfall cascading down a sheer cliff side abutting more towering trees just Northwest of the freighter’s last visual as it descended on repulsorlifts for a landing in denser jungle beyond. As the sun fell in the sky, Kaor melted into the lengthening shadows, innately becoming one with her surroundings as she agilely traversed the jungle marshes.

After a short while, she came swiftly to a stop, leaping and swinging up into some mid level branches of the thinning forest nearing the waterfall and cliff side. An odd trio of large, nonsentient reptiles fled directly under the branch she was crouched on. Her senses on high alert, she felt the waft of the Force touching their primal minds. Fear, not a natural survival instinct, but a manufactured, mind altering fear that sends beings into panicked flight mode. It was not as insidious as some of the abilities she’d witnessed Sith use on their victims, but it was similar enough… Someone with the use of the Force had sent these beasts away, if she back tracked their reckless, irrational flight through the landscape she could possibly find the Force user responsible. The likelihood that said person was connected with the freighter or Kast’s group was almost certain in this sparsely populated region. As the camouflaged assassin slowly followed the tracks, her senses reaching out, she innately withdrew her own presence in the Force. Her exploration just became a lot more hazardous - and intriguing...

By mutual consent Willax scouted the valley floor and associated caves while Drahcir made his way along the Eastern most ridge to the small peak that lay before the two Jedi. The caves yielded no new information to Willax, but proved to be the homes of many small animals of at least the same genus as the proto-mammals that the Nalroni had encountered while climbing the Western escarpment of the first ridge.

The trees in the valley itself were of more interest, a thick and rich soil had been trapped between the uplifted rocks of the valley walls and here the tangled and buttressed roots of a ficus like tree grew. Willax recognised the species at once as one being on the list of plants requiring further investigation, that he had obtained before leaving Tython. The pods of the tree were believed to be an excellent source of food in suitable growing environments and while serving with the agricorps Willax had seen enough worlds struck by famine or blight, to appreciate the implications of this. The problem was, however that the tree itself and the avian species associated with it, both had a very significant cultural importance to the native Sarkans and it had taken considerable and lengthy negotiations even to obtain a few pollinated fruit, of which the seeds had refused to germinate.

Willax scraped some seeds and pieces of pod from a pile of avian dropping that a half-meter flatworm seemed to be dissolving with some form of caustic secretion. A ripple of bright blue bio-luminescence travelled along the black skin of the creature as it curled up in alarm. The natural curiosity of the Nalroni made him wonder if it was the secretion of the worm that triggered germination of the seeds.

Putting the seeds in a specimen bag in his biological kit, Willax dragged his mind back to the task at hand. He rapidly caught up with Drahcir and met with the human close to the pinnacle on the Eastern ridge.

Here the ground fell away in a sheer drop as if a huge upthrust had occurred causing a fault line in the form of a cliff that ran as far as the eye could see to the East and West. The ridgeline itself being made of harder rock than the surrounding limestone jutted out slightly giving the two young Jedi an excellent view to the North and East. In both directions there was nothing to see but jungle interspersed with swamp. Some distance away to the West they could see a large waterfall tumbling over the cliff face, that area would be much closer to the search areas of the Northern or Western scouts however.

With a shrug Willax and Drahcir started their return journey, Willax led and he thought he would head along the cliff edge for a while before turning South East to make for the landing ground.